


Sound of a Promise

by Star_Going_Supernova



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: (we can hope though), BAMF Henry, Gen, Inspired by Fanart, Joey's a dick, Not Canon Compliant, Not Game Compliant, Poor Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Protective Henry, escaping the studio, for real though, he's awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 10:30:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12651801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Going_Supernova/pseuds/Star_Going_Supernova
Summary: They were so close.So, naturally— as it goes in many stories— that’s when the villain makes his appearance.





	Sound of a Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Saw this amazing work of art and knew I had to write a little something for it: http://doberart.tumblr.com/post/167100734383/are-you-going-to-take-the-word-of-a-cartoon-over  
> Go check this awesome artist out! The line that accompanies it (or is that the title?) is in the story, so that’s not mine. 
> 
> This was just a fun little piece that I wanted to do the other day after writing about a thousand words for The Art of Being Alive. The chapters for that story are steadily getting longer, oh my gosh _why_.

They were so close. 

Who woulda thought that freedom would be in sight after Henry went on a brief rage with his axe, breaking clean through a wall that revealed a set of hidden stairs that led straight back up to the original studio’s floors? After the hell they’d gone through, it felt like the break they’d both been hoping for, but hadn’t believed would come.

Bendy watched Henry step carefully through room after room to avoid falling back down to the lower levels. As much as he wanted to walk out of the studio on his own two feet, they were both too paranoid that the floor would break under only one of them, leaving them separated. Hence why Henry was carrying Bendy in the crook of his arm like one would a small child. 

Not that Bendy minded. 

Though there weren’t any Searchers or Butcher gang copies on the upper levels, and the axe wouldn’t do much against ‘Bendy,’ Henry still carried it in his free left hand. Again, not that Bendy minded; it made him feel safer, and he wasn’t even the one wielding it. 

_So close_. Just a few more rooms now, and they’d be out.

Henry made his way through the room with **Dreams Come True** smeared over one of the walls. Without warning, a projector clicked on, shining a square of dull light on the wall with an animation of Bendy bouncing up and down to a nonexistent beat. 

“Henry!” 

Said man’s steps froze at the voice, his whole body going tense beneath Bendy’s touch, as Bendy himself squeezed closer, tucking his face into Henry’s shoulder with a whimper. His fingers clenched in the material of his shirt.

_Don’t let me go_ , he pleaded through the gesture. 

Henry’s arm tightened around him in response. His large hand pressed firmly against Bendy’s side. 

_I’m here_ , Bendy heard in the silence. _I’m here_.

Bendy felt Henry turn, presumably towards wherever Joey had emerged from. 

“Joey,” he said. 

Joey laughed, his footsteps growing closer. Bendy forced his eyes shut. He felt his ink start to melt slightly down his face.

“It’s good to see you, my friend, and after so long, too! I was—” Joey chuckled— “rather overjoyed when you accepted my invitation to return.” 

“You got a funny way of showing it, y’know that?”

Bendy took comfort in how distant and cold Henry was being; it meant he might not believe any of Joey’s inevitable lies or give in to the man’s demands.

He had to trust Henry. Trust that Henry would keep his promise of protecting Bendy, of getting Bendy out of the studio, of not abandoning Bendy; he had to trust that Henry wouldn’t hand Bendy over to Joey. 

Henry continued, “I know why you brought me here, what you hoped would happen to me. And you still have the nerve to call me your _friend?_ ” 

“Come now,” Joey said, sounding closer and less cheerful. “You don’t know what you’re saying. Don’t be so quick to jump to outrageous conclusions.”

Bendy felt Henry shift slightly, angling the side he held Bendy on away from Joey. “I know exactly what I’m saying. Even if I didn’t figure some of it out for myself, Bendy was more than willing to fill in the missing pieces.”

Henry stepped back suddenly, “Don’t.” 

“You really think I want to hurt you?” 

Part of Bendy wanted to raise his head and see what was happening. A larger part just wanted to stay tucked up against Henry’s warmth until they’d left the studio far behind— this was the part that won out.

At least, that was the plan, right up until Henry bent over and started to let Bendy go. He whined, and clutched his animator tighter.

“C’mon, bud,” Henry whispered. “If things get messy, I’m gonna need both hands to protect you.”

Reluctant but understanding, Bendy dropped the rest of the way to the floor, twisting his fingers into Henry’s pant leg instead of his shirt. 

He looked up, right into Joey Drew’s face. The man gazed back at him for a moment, expression unreadable. Bendy’s ink melted a little more, his mouth downturned. 

Addressing Henry, Joey held out his hand imploringly. “Are you going to take the word of a cartoon over your old pal? Especially one that can’t even hold himself together?” 

Henry stared Joey straight in the eyes. “Yes,” he simply said. 

Rage contorted Joey’s face. “This is how you thank me?” he said, sneering. “After all those years of working together to make our dreams come true, after how far we went? I turned your little _doodle_ into a star! You’d be nothing without me, Henry!”

Shaking his head, Henry smirked a bit. “You got it backwards, Joey. I was doing just fine after you sent me away. _You’re_ the one that needed me back here.”

Joey looked about ready to fly off the handle. Bendy ducked farther behind Henry as he watched the man take a few deep breaths to calm himself down. 

With a smile that couldn’t have looked more forced, he said, “Tell ya what. I’ll let bygones be bygones, and we can forget about this whole thing…” Joey’s eyes fell to pin Bendy in place. “If you just give me him.” 

Before Bendy could even be properly terrified, Henry gently pushed him back and raised his axe slightly. He didn’t have to say a word; his expression was answer enough. 

The fake smile dropped off Joey’s face faster than an anvil in one of Bendy’s gags. “If that’s the way it’s going to be, then so be it.”

He lunged at Henry, perhaps believing the animator wouldn’t be capable of using the axe against him. Joey wasn’t entirely wrong; Bendy knew Henry enough to know that he wouldn’t be able to fight Joey the way he fought the Searchers. But he also knew that if there was one thing the studio had taught Henry, it was that an axe wasn’t only good for chopping.

He swung it like a baseball bat, smacking Joey with the flat side. Joey reeled backwards, clutching his shoulder. He stumbled to one knee, his right arm hanging limply. 

Henry didn’t relax. Instead, he planted his feet and gripped the handle tightly, ready for Joey to try again. Bendy backed up, not wanting to get in Henry’s way. 

Joey laughed lowly and abruptly moved like he was throwing something at Henry with his injured arm. A handful of ink sprayed through the air, splattering into Henry’s eyes, Joey not far behind. 

He managed to knock the axe out of Henry’s hand before taking a punch to his jaw. Despite being partially blinded, Bendy had seen Henry fight through worse conditions in the lower levels. As far as he was concerned, his animator still had the upper hand. 

Bit by bit, Henry forced Joey back, ducking and dodging the man’s attempts at retaliation. He got a good kick in against his former boss’s stomach, sending him stumbling against an old desk. The objects on it rattled at the impact. 

Joey glanced over his shoulder, bleeding from his nose. Whatever he saw made him grin like the madman he was, and he snatched something up. 

Henry moved more into the center of the room to put some extra space between them, expecting Joey to throw whatever it was.

He did. Just not at Henry. 

The way they all stood meant that Henry wasn’t directly between Joey and Bendy— who was backed into a corner— so when Joey threw the open bottle of acetone, there was nothing between him and Bendy to stop it. 

For that long second where it hung in the air, arcing towards him, Bendy found himself hoping that Henry didn’t blame himself. He had tried— he had tried so hard to get Bendy out safely— and Bendy was about to die feeling infinitely grateful for meeting the animator. He wondered how long it would take once the bottle exploded over him; if it would be quick, like when Henry killed the Searchers, or if melting for him would take a long time. It’d probably hurt like— 

Henry smacked the bottle out of the air, tripping into the wall from his desperate lunge at it. 

The bottle shattered against the floorboards, the acetone harmlessly seeping through the cracks.

Bendy stared at it, his mouth hanging open. He was okay. 

A roar made him look up in time to see Joey pull Henry forward to slam him against the wall. 

“You just _have_ to ruin everything, don’t ya? You can’t just let yourself _die_ , you can’t just give up like a normal man, you just have to. Keep. On. _Going_.” 

Joey shoved his forearm against Henry’s throat, wrenching his head back with his other hand in Henry’s hair. 

“You were meant to die in this studio, Ross, and I’ll make sure you take your last breath right here if _it’s the last thing I do!_ ” 

Even as he choked, Henry tried to shove Joey away. Though they were of an almost equal height, Joey had barely enough leverage on him to keep him in place. 

Bendy tried to stand, tried to go and help his animator— but his legs were jelly beneath him. Every attempt he made left him falling back into the corner. Tears dripped from his eyes. After everything they’d survived, Henry was going to die right in front of him, and Bendy couldn’t even manage to stay on his own two feet. 

Henry finally managed to get his arms between his body and Joey’s. With a surge of adrenaline the likes of which Bendy hadn’t seen before, he wedged his hands partly under Joey’s armpits and heaved Joey up and off, briefly sending him airborne. 

Bendy watched as, almost in slow motion, Joey hit the floor in the middle of the room on his back. The wood instantly gave out beneath him, swallowing the man up into the darkness below. 

Like a chain reaction, the fresh hole began to grow as the building rumbled around them. More and more floorboards collapsed into nothingness, crumbling away closer and closer to Bendy’s frozen form. 

A hand was suddenly there, reaching down and pulling him up into Henry’s arms. As soon as he had Bendy, he took off, the studio collapsing behind them. When they reached the final hallway leading to the exit, Henry leapt the small chasm that his first fall had caused, bodily slamming into the door. It gave under his power, and they spilled out into the sunlit parking lot. 

Henry didn’t stop running until they were beside his pickup truck at the far side, away from the billowing cloud of dust and ink fumes that the ruined building sent up. 

They watched together as Joey Drew Studios finished leveling itself. 

“That’s comedic gold, right there,” Henry said, his voice slightly raspy. 

Bendy looked up at him, still trembling. “What?” 

“The studio fell with him. He sent it crumbling down, first figuratively all those years ago, and now he’s done it literally.”

Smiling, Bendy tried to unlock his fingers from their death grip on Henry’s shirt. Nope, looked like he was staying right where he was for the foreseeable future. 

“You all right?” 

His mouth dropped open. Leaning back to stare at Henry, Bendy cried, “Am _I_ all right? More like are _you_ all right? You’re the one that just took a real beatin’ for me!”

Henry slid down the side of his truck to the ground, cradling Bendy in his lap. “Worth it, bud. Though I hope I don’t have to do it again any time soon.”

Bendy slumped suddenly, going limp in Henry’s arms. “It’s over,” he said, wonder in his voice. “We made it.” 

He watched Henry tilt his head back to look at the brilliant blue sky. There was still ink splashed across his face, but it would go away after a good wash or two. 

“We made it,” Henry repeated softly, like a prayer answered and a vast, bright future stretched out before them. 

Bendy beamed and settled his head against Henry’s chest, listening to the strong heartbeat pounding away, like the sound of a promise.

**Author's Note:**

> Go stare at that art some more. I love it. Henry looks about ready to throw down. It’s like— Joey, would you approach a mama bear who’s guarding her cub in the wild? No? Then _why they heck are you doing that exact thing right now?_


End file.
